This is why
by Madninja324
Summary: My life sort of sucks, just this morning I was smashed into the sidewalk by a star athlete, my new landlord is almost grumpier than me in the morning (and that's saying something), oh yeah... And I woke up with two sweet guns, a possibly stolen robotic arm, and absolutely no memories of my past, let the good times roll
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing about RWBY except my OC's... Dammit

Chapter one: Who am I?

My head hurts, like really _really_ badly. Opening my eyes only seemed to make it worse, the ears on top of my head flattened in reaction to my splitting headache. Okay, OW, _come on, focus on something other than the pain... Where am I?_ The taupe ceiling was cracked and filthy, the paint was chipped and there was a large water mark in one corner, clearly whomever was responsible (if anyone was) for this building's upkeep either wasn't bothering, or didn't have the money for maintenance.

The headache started to fade and I managed to focus enough to notice where I was lying, an old, dirty bed with slightly yellowed sheets, I raised my hands up in front of my face, my right hand was pale skinned, with slender fingers and a developed callous on the pad of the index finger, however when I moved my left hand I heard a tiny mechanical whirr, and was presented with the sight of five mechanical fingers attached to a metal palm, and a metal plated forearm with servos, pistons and gears just visible under the plating. _What the hell?_ I sat up fast, which made me a little dizzy at first, and checked, yep, my entire left arm was a robotic prosthetic, a really good one to boot. _How did that get there? I don't even remember losing my arm in the first place._ As soon as that thought hit my spine went ramrod straight, and my eyes must have widened to the size of five Lien coins. _forget not remembering my arm, I couldn't seem to remember ANYTHING!_ Prior to waking up a few minutes ago my mind was a blank slate. I didn't know how I'd gotten there, I had no idea how I'd ended up with a mechanical arm, I couldn't tell you my age, or even my NAME!

I started hyperventilating and frantically started searching myself for some form of identification, my jeans pockets were empty of everything but lint, the pockets of the blue and yellow jacket, which I wore with the sleeves rolled up to mid biceps contained a single slip of paper on which was printed a series of numbers, which I put back in the jacket pocket, since I hadn't the slightest clue what it meant, oh, and another thing I'd just noticed, at my waist was a gun belt, a pair of boxy pistols hung from the belt, one was white with black accents and the other was all blue, but otherwise they seemed identical, engraved in the grip of each pistol was a single word, likely their respective names, the white and black gun was _Death_ and it's blue companion had the word _Duty_ inscribed in it's grip.

On impulse I drew both pistols from their housing, they felt natural in my hands, as if I'd been using them for years, I probably had, though I couldn't remember any of it. My mechanical hand came as something of a surprise, not only did it respond to my mental commands just as quickly as my natural arm I could "feel" _Death_ settled against my mechanical palm, it wasn't the same as the sensations of my flesh and blood hand, but I had a sort of "awareness" of the weight and shape of the pistol gripped in my metallic fist. _Freaky._

As I examined the guns and my arm more closely I felt a slight pressure at my temples, then blue ghostly figures appeared out of nowhere, it was as if the weapons and prosthetic had deconstructed themselves and the parts hung in the air, though neither gun nor robot arm did anything of the sort in reality, instead, I realized I was seeing a spectral copy of each part involved in the creation of each object and... yes, I also saw how each one fit together, and if what I saw was the truth then... _ah! There we go._ one the side of each pistol grip there was a small switch, pointing _Duty_ away from myself and holstering _Death_ I flipped the switch, with a soft _snick_ a collapsed, ten inch blade extended out from directly under the barrel of the gun. Flipping the switch back to it's previous position retracted the blade. After holstering my blue pistol I finally stood and took a good look around the room, it was just as much of a mess as the bed and ceiling suggested it would be, dust and filth was everywhere, there was a black painted wooden dresser, which was tipped over due to the fact that one of it's legs had evidently snapped off at some point, hanging on the wall behind it was a dirty, cracked mirror, which I approached, I wanted to see my reflection. _Yes, my memory loss was so bad that I don't even know what I look like, yeah, I know that's almost more freaky than not knowing your own name, not quite there, but almost._

I looked young, seventeen or eighteen at most, a little above six feet tall, with a messy, tangled mop of blue hair and grey eyes with dark circles under them, set into a rectangular face, a two inch long scar passed right by the corner of my right eye, and sticking up from my mess of blue hair was a pair of tawny lion's ears, all in all I didn't look half bad, oddly sleep deprived since I'd just woken up, but that was just one more mystery to add to the mounting pile.

Having satisfied my curiosity about the room I'd come to in, and honestly wanting to get out of the filthy place, I rolled down my sleeves and walked out the door and down the stairs directly to my left, until I stepped out into the daylight, by the position of the sun it was approximately 9:45 AM and... _how exactly did I know that?_ I had no idea, I was starting to sense a theme though, and it was beginning to annoy me, A LOT. I must have been standing on what was apparently a sidewalk too long because the next thing I knew a hand touched my arm, I acted on blind instinct, turning and drawing _Duty_ in the same motion, I wasn't even aware that I'd extended _Duty_ 's blade until I heard a _clang_ and came to my senses, only for someone to sweep my feet out from under me. The next second I was lying on the pavement looking up at a wickedly sharp yellow and red sword tip, about one inch from my left eye, and behind that a tall girl who seemed about my age, with long red hair in a waist length ponytail, hard emerald eyes glaring down at me and her heeled boot pressing the wrist of my right arm into the ground, effectively pinning _Duty_ to the concrete sidewalk... _Oh... Shit._

Keeping my eyes on the red head, which wasn't really a hardship, she was gorgeous. NO, _bad hormones! Down! No cookie for you!_ I mentally scolded myself, though the swordswoman chose that moment to speak. "Well? Are you planning to explain yourself or do I have to I turn you over to the police?"

No matter what anyone might tell you otherwise I was NOT blushing, not at the embarrassment of the moment, and DEFINITELY not in reaction to this girl's voice, which even when darkened by anger and suspicion was as lovely as she was... _Screw you hormones, you freaking morons._

"I-I'm sorry, you caught me off guard, so I just... reacted, I wasn't thinking." I managed to keep my voice relatively even, though as small tremor got though at the start of my sentence.

Some of the coldness leeched out of the red head's eyes, though her frown didn't soften, and her sword arm didn't waver, I flipped the switch to retract _Duty_ 's blade, then I turned my hand as much as my captor's boot would allow and dropped the pistol to the ground. I took a better look at my red haired captor, she wore an elastic red miniskirt with some kind of red drape hung from her belt down nearly the entire length of her left leg, both legs were covered in what seemed to be bronze leg armor, her slender, curvy, and well endowed figure was squeezed into a tight leather and metal tube top, her arms were sheathed in maroon gloves, and her left forearm was enclosed in a grooved bronze bracer, and a round shield hung off her back, an ornate headpiece nestled in her scarlet hair made out of a single band of bronze that circled her head, dipping to just above her neck, and swooping over her ears, two thin chains hung from the headdress falling just barely under each ear before reattaching to the band of bronze.

Red didn't seem convinced by my apology, I sighed. "Look, Miss whoever you are, could I get up please? I promise I won't attack you or run, not that either would do me much good, you are clearly faster than I am, seriously, how does anyone get that _fast_?!"

Red blinked her gemlike green eyes. "You... You don't recognize me?"

 _Yeah... I don't recognize ME completely, there's no way I know you._ Out loud I said. "No, should I? I mean, have we met before?"

"No... I don't think so, but I'm pretty well known, so it's always a pleasant surprise when someone _hasn't_ heard about me, I'm Pyrrha, Pyrrha Nikos."

"Nope still not ringing any bells." I shook my head as Pyrrha stepped off of my wrist and lifted her sword away from my eye. After I'd holstered _Duty_ I sat up and rubbed life back into my now throbbing wrist.

Pyrrha had to angle her head slightly upwards when I stood to my full height. "So... what's your name?" Pyrrha asked.

I let out a small mirthless laugh before responding. "I'd love to tell you the answer to that question, but first I'd have to know what it is."

"What do you mean you don't know your own name?"

"Exactly what I said, I'm an amnesiac, I have no idea who I am, where I am, or how I got here, though I don't seem to have lost any skills I learned before losing my memory, which apparently includes battlefield instincts, sorry again about that by the way." As I was apologizing I gestured with my left arm, and Pyrrha noticed the robotic hand poking out of the sleeve of my coat.

"What's that?"

 _What was wha... Oh!_ I pulled my left sleeve up to reveal my metal forearm. "My entire left arm is like this, and no, I don't know how I got this either."

"I believe you, but this is a highly advanced mechanical prosthetic, there shouldn't be very many people who got one, much less a full arm replacement, the serial number should be recorded somewhere, and it should be able to give you your name."

A bolt of excitement shot down my spine and I burst into a wide grin. Then I stared hard at my mechanical arm, once again the blue phantom parts spread out from the prosthesis, however this time I was searching each piece individually, and there on the inside of one of the forearm plates was... something, I couldn't tell exactly what, just some raised bumps, my Semblance wasn't detailed enough to get any sort of clear picture, so I located the metal plate on my actual prosthesis.

"Um, Pyrrha, do you happen to have a screwdriver on you?"

The redhead shook her head. "No, though I do have something better."

"What?"

"My Semblance." Pyrrha hovered her hand over my mechanical arm and it started glowing black, the metal screws holding the targeted plate began unscrewing themselves. I looked at Pyrrha in wonder, which caused her to fidget uncomfortably, and cast around for a different topic of conversation. "Um, so, how did you know which plate has the serial number?"

"If I look at a machine long enough I start seeing floating blue doubles of all the machine's individual parts and I see how they fit together, as well as their general purpose, though I've only tried it with my arm and my guns, it should theoretically work on just about anything mechanical."

Pyrrha nodded. "Your Semblance, kind of like my Polarity, or magnetism manipulation, except yours allows you to perform in-depth examinations of machines without needing to even touch them."

"What _is_ a Semblance, anyway?"

Pyrrha blinked incredulously for a second before murmuring. "Right, amnesiac... A Semblance is the outward expression of your aura, which the semi physical embodiment of your soul, your Semblance is a special power that is for the most part unique to you, while your aura basically functions as a force field with some physical and sensory enhancements, everyone with Hunter training has their aura unlocked, judging by your weapons, reflexes and the fact that not only do you have an active aura you also have access to your Semblance it certainly seems as if you have at least some Huntsman training, or something similar."

"Interesting..." I mumbled, and it was, but I was focused on a single goal, I lifted the metal plate off my prosthesis and turned it over to find... A series of deep scratches, the serial number had been filed off. _What... Thefuck..._ The serial number on my arm had been the biggest clue to my identity yet, and it was gone. I was barely aware of Pyrrha lifting the plate out of my limp hand and replace it on my arm, though oddly enough I "felt" when she screwed it back in, it was like an itch at the back of my brain, a strange pressure on a part of me that logically shouldn't be transmitting any sensation at all.

Pyrrha looked at me oddly for several seconds, the staring was starting to make me a little uncomfortable. "U-um, Pyrrha?"

"If you haven't lost your learned skills I think we might be able to get at least a clue about you."

I was intrigued. "I'm listening..."

"Well... since the only things we know about you are that you're a Faunus with a robotic limb, and that you have at least some experience in combat, you should spar with someone, even if it doesn't help you remember anything it can help give you an idea of your combat abilities, which could really only be helpful."

I shrugged, I didn't have anything better to do. "Why not, though I assume you don't mean to pick a fight in the middle of the street."

"There's a gym in the area that I go to to train while I'm in Vale, it's out of the way enough that the photographers haven't found it yet."

That caught my attention. "Photographers?"

Pyrrha's eyes narrowed and a red flush bloomed on her cheeks. "That's the polite term for them, the more accurate term would be paparazzi, or maybe just vultures, I won a major combat tournament four years in a row, so now they all want pictures of 'The Invincible Girl' for their headlines, it's exhausting, and half the reason why I'm out of the tournament circuit."

"What's the other half?" I asked.

"I want to use my skills to help people rather than just to compete, in two weeks time I'm going to start attending Beacon to become a Huntress."

That... seemed very fitting for her, for some reason, though I had only met this girl less than half an hour ago the thought of her standing on the front lines of the fight against the Grimm suited her... _huh... I just remembered what the Grimm are._ Sure, it was frustrating, I knew about the soulless monsters that had haunted Humanity and the Faunus since the start of recorded history, but my own history was still totally unknown, but at least I was remembering _something_ , maybe this plan of Pyrrha's might work. A smile started inching it's way across my face, my lion ears stood straight up.

"Alright, let's try it."

Pyrrha led the way down three streets before we reached the gym, _A Hunter's Paradise_. The outside of the building was shabby, just like every other building in this part of the city we were in, which was called Vale, according to Pyrrha, it was the capital and namesake of one of the four Kingdoms that people had managed to form and hold against the Grimm over the millennia, the other three were Vacuo, Mistral (which is where Pyrrha was from), and Atlas.

The inside of the gym wasn't fancy but it was well maintained, which was why there were no windows facing the street, too many pieces of relatively expensive, if outdated, gym equipment that would be prime targets for robbery, it was clear that the place didn't have much money, but it was just as clear that the owner took pride in their job.

"Pyrrha! I was wondering if you'd show up today, it's good to see ya kid." I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of a boisterous male voice, I whirled to see a huge swarthy man with boar tusks sticking out of his mouth.

"Jumpy one aren't you boy?" The boar Faunus chuckled, though his eyes reflected sympathy, like he understood why a young Faunus like myself would be skittish around strangers, hell, _I_ understood his reasoning, and I'm an amnesiac. That's kind of depressing actually, even though I could remember a sum total of nothing about my life I still knew that I and nearly every other Faunus had experienced racism and hatred at the hands of Humans.

I realized that he probably expected me to answer him. "I suppose so, Sir."

""None of that 'Sir' business. My name's Rusty, owner and manager of this fine establishment."

"I'd love to tell you my name, but I don't remember it, or anything else for that matter. Pyrrha's trying to help me remember my past."

Rusty's eyes narrowed. "Really, I don't think I've ever seen someone like you then, so what are you and Pyrrha doing here?"

It was Pyrrha who answered. "He's shown signs of previous combat training, so I was hoping if we sparred we might be able to jog a couple memories loose, and even if it doesn't work we can help him relearn how to fight."

Rusty seemed to be mulling it over. "Alright, I suppose it's worth a try at least, you can use the training ring. Good luck you two."

The training ring was about ten feet in diameter, and Pyrrha and I stood at opposite ends of the ring, our weapons were still holstered, Pyrrha's sword and shield were fastened to her back, and my guns were still in their holsters, taking the opportunity I took a look at Pyrrha's weapons with my Semblance, the shield was just a shield, but the sword could become a spear or a rifle, I would have to watch out for that.

"Alright you two, we're doing this tournament style: no fatal attacks, no hits below the belt, a combatant loses when his or her aura gets below twelve percent, or if he or she is knocked out of the ring, start on my mark." Rusty stood to the side of the ring as he barked out the rules of our spar. "Ready... fight."

My hands blurred as I drew _Death_ and _Duty_ in one motion and started firing at Pyrrha, who, far from being caught off guard had called her weapons to her hands with her Polarity. The shield seemed to slot into the grooves on her bracer, while her weapon, still in sword form was grasped in her free hand, before I'd even started shooting the Invincible Girl was moving, her raised shield caught several bullets as she dashed straight for me. I extended the blades on both guns and met her charge. I brought up _Death_ 's blade up to turn aside a sword slash and spun on one foot, returning the slash with _Duty_ , Pyrrha's shield rang as it took the hit, I completed my spin and lashed out with my foot, Pyrrha's own booted foot struck behind her, our kicks clashed and rebounded, I retracted _Death_ 's blade and unloaded two shots at Pyrrha's back, only for the famed fighter to drop into a backwards roll, then spring up and elbow me in the face. I staggered back from the impact but I caught myself quickly and bent backward, allowing Pyrrha's blade to pass within a couple inches of my eyes, I fired a shot into her midsection that impacted off her aura.

As Pyrrha flinched from the hit I lurched forward from my backbend, ducking low I charged in a shallow leftward arc toward my opponent, who shifted her weapon into its spear mode. I stabbed forward with _Duty_ , Pyrrha turned aside the thrust with her spear, I didn't resist, instead I used my momentum to elbow Pyrrha in the face, the blow caught her on the cheekbone and snapped her head back, though even dazed Pyrrha's instincts took over and she forced me back with a broad slash of her spear. I jumped back and away from Pyrrha's spear blade and retracted _Duty_ 's blade, then I started firing from both guns. Pyrrha recovered just in time to dive out of the way of my barrage, before she could get up I aimed _Death_ and _Duty_ at her prone form, the redhead curled her legs underneath herself and took cover behind her shield, over the edge of one of the shields two indents on the side of the shield, or what would technically be the top now, the barrel of a rifle poked out and it was my turn to dive out of the way of Pyrrha's return fire, as soon as I stopped shooting Pyrrha sprang to her feet.

I rolled out of the way of three more rifle shots, then I flipped back onto my feet and barely managed to avoid taking a full hit from Pyrrha's rifle, instead the bullet bounced off the aura on my right shoulder, I extended both blades and channeled my aura to my feet, crossing the short distance between us in an eyeblink. Pyrrha met my attack with sword and shield, our blades locked for a moment and we grinned at each other, the thrill of finding a worthwhile challenge was coursing through both of us, sweat coated us both and we were starting to breath harder. "I guess we don't have to worry about re-teaching me how to fight." I quipped.

"I guess not, but do you remember anything?"

"Just some fighting and aura control techniques."

"Then I guess we'll just keep going." Pyrrha's eyes were burning emerald with the excitement of someone finally faced with a challenge to their abilities.

We disengaged and stood there for a couple seconds, evaluating each other. Pyrrha really was incredible, I couldn't find a single weakness in her stance. I realized she hadn't used her Semblance yet, there was no way I was going to win this fight, magnetism was a game breaking power, especially since one of my _arms_ was made of metal, I was only a little bit behind her in terms of actual skill, but that Semblance of hers blew my useful but non-threatening Semblance out of the water. " _Azure, when you're in a situation where you cannot win, don't be afraid to run, you are no use to anyone dead."_ I froze, the voice that had spoken inside my head had _definitely_ not been mine, it was older, deeper and harsher... I'd remembered something!

My distraction cost me a devastating hit to the side that knocked me off my feet and out of the ring.

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha looked mortified with herself, trust her to apologize for hitting someone during a sparring match, I chuckled.

"I'm fine, it was my fault for getting distracted, though good news is your plan worked, I remembered something!"

Rusty decided to chip in. "That's great kid, though it would have been nice to tell us that _before_ Pyrrha kicked you into next week. So what did you remember?"

"I remembered my first name." I felt like singing, or at least jumping up and shouting with joy, since I was pretty sure I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.

Pyrrha, however didn't let me bask in the moment, she was impatient. "Well? What is it?!"

From my spot on the floor of _A Hunter's Paradise_ I sent a lopsided grin up at Pyrrha and Rusty. "Azure, my name is Azure."

* * *

(Author's note: I am very easily distracted. Anyway please read, review, and hopefully enjoy!)


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: What's with this Anger?

Here's a note for anyone for anyone who thinks it's a good idea to sleep on an exercise bench: it isn't. Rusty had offered me a place to sleep at his gym, and since my options were sleeping in a clean gym, or returning to the disgusting room I'd woken up in yesterday and seeing if anyone came to kick me out, I chose the option much less likely to kill me just by my being in the same vicinity. At six o'clock the next morning (and don't ask how I know what time it is without a clock nearby, I couldn't tell you) I rolled off of what had seemed like the most comfortable surface available last night with a yelp of pain, my back muscles hadn't liked the minimally padded and totally flat bench and now that I had woken up they were making their displeasure known, painfully.

"Ow..." I'm pretty sure that was me groaning.

"Uuugghh." Yup, definitely me, why did morning have to be so fucking _early_?! I had just discovered a new truth about myself: I was most definitely NOT a morning person. In fact, I resolved that if Rusty turned out to be a morning person I was going to shoot him. Never mind his generosity in letting me sleep in his gym, I would be doing the world a great favor by removing another chipper individual from her soil. Ignoring my protesting muscles I stood and stretched, working the tension from my back. Once I could stand straight without pain I followed my nose to the back room of the gym, where I found a truly heaven sent vision: a half full pot of coffee. Rusty sat on a bench in front of the coffee pot dressed in a black tank top and boxer shorts, the large Faunus' bloodshot eyes cut over to me with an irritated glare that would have warmed my soul if I'd been capable of that without caffeine in my system and he grunted in greeting, pointing to the coffee pot and the empty mug, before standing up and growling something about getting me out of his hair, then stepping through the door opposite the entrance to the gym, likely his bedroom, as the backroom seemingly served double duty as a kitchenette.

Wasting no time I snagged the mug set aside for me and poured myself a generous measure of steaming dark nectar, without bothering with cream or sugar I gulped down the contents of my mug, ignoring the heat that scalded the inside of my mouth. With my first cup of coffee came a sort of inner peace as my previous grumpiness melted away through a liberal application of steaming hot Joe. It took three mugs of coffee to get me feeling as normally as possible, you know, for an amnesiac cyborg teenager, so not very normal at all, but not ready to shoot anyone for smiling too much either, and I was ok with that.

With Rusty's permission I was allowed to use the exercise equipment for an early morning workout, though working out with a mechanical arm was more complicated than a normal workout, I quickly got the hang of it.

At nine thirty Pyrrha showed up wearing a bronze t-shirt and knee length jeans with her hair in it's evidently customary ponytail and headdress, a pair of strappy sandals shod her feet with straps crisscrossing up and down her well-defined calves, in her right hand was a red duffel bag. As the young champion stepped into the gym I stood up from whatever machine I'd been using, I probably knew what it was called before I lost my memories, now I had no freakin' clue, I just called it the leg machine. Anyway upon seeing me Pyrrha beamed. "Good morning Azure! It's a wonderful day today."

"Please tell me you aren't a morning person." I deadpanned.

Pyrrha's smile dimmed a little and I felt bad about being responsible for that, for some reason. "Not really, I just wake up earlier than most people, so I tend to be awake by the time everyone else is still dragging themselves around."

I nodded. "Neither am I, but I don't wake up as quickly as you do, apparently."

"You seemed fine yesterday."

"I was too busy freaking out about my amnesia and fake left arm to be tired, now that I've calmed down Mr. Golden Sun and I aren't on speaking terms until at least ten I'm thinking."

Pyrrha laughed. "Understood, then I suppose you have no interest in going to see the new doughnut place eight blocks away?"

At the mention of food my stomach growled like a Beowulf and I felt my face burn. "I might be willing to put aside my differences with the sun for a little bit."

Pyrrha snorted in a very unladylike manner, neither of us cared.

Pyrrha laid her bag on a bench while I strapped on my gunbelt and holstered my pistols. Pyrrha gave me an odd look. "Azure, we're just going for a short walk, you don't need to bring your weapons."

I sent her a level stare. "The guns go where I go Pyrrha, a warrior should NEVER separate from his weapons." The stare made my underlying message clear: _or HER weapons._

Cheeks turning a faint pink Pyrrha unpacked her duffel and left the contents (gym clothes, towel, a water bottle, etc. typical gym stuff I guess, not that I'd know) on the bench she'd previously put the bag, at the bottom of the duffel was her sword and shield, and the bracer Pyrrha used to secure her shield to her arm.

"Alright, let's go get us some doughnuts." Pyrrha led the way with the duffel bag hanging from her fingers.

It turns out that being an amnesiac does very little to help you make interesting conversation, not only did I not have any personal experiences to draw from I didn't always know what Pyrrha was talking about. Thankfully Pyrrha was very understanding and patient, I have no idea how though, I'll be the first to admit that I was probably pretty annoying.

About a block from the doughnut place, in a much nicer section of the city my lion ears twitched, they had caught the edge of a sound, without a single moment's hesitation I dashed across the street, luckily there had been no cars as I wasn't watching where I was going, once across the street I dashed down an alleyway, my coat was flapping behind me as I dashed headlong into the dark alley, I barely felt my eyes adjust instantly to the shadows, but they could hide nothing from me, at the end of the the alley, where it was dark enough that most people, too afraid or apathetic to interfere, would be able to deny seeing anything, and out of the way enough that very few people who _would_ do something would even notice.

Four men stood around a small group of dirty street kids (no that wasn't a disparagement, they were covered in dirt) one was watching the three youngest, none of whom were older than seven, while two held the arms of the oldest kid, a skinny girl of about thirteen with tiny deer antlers sprouting from her forehead, the fourth man was menacing her with a broken bottle, I caught a little of what he said. " _I'll teach... steal from me... fucking animal."_

I drew _Death_ and _Duty_ and focused my aura into my feet, just like I had during my spar with Pyrrha, then more and more until there were tiny sparks of cobalt electricity flickering in and out of existence around my feet and the concrete sidewalk had started to crack, I somehow knew that this would take a lot out of me, but those four jokers still wouldn't be a problem. I hit them with the force of a lightning bolt, slamming a hand down on the bottle wielder's shoulder to boost a roll over his back that ended in my boot slamming into the face of the one guarding the little kids, smashing the man headfirst into the brick wall behind him, before his companions had time to blink I shot the other two unarmed assholes in their left and right kneecaps respectively before extending _Death_ 's blade and severing the Achilles tendons in both the apparent leader's legs. Pyrrha showed up in time to see Broken Bottle's now useless legs give out and send him toppling to the ground, the three conscious thugs were all screaming in pain.

I checked the pulse on the guy I'd kicked into the wall at max speed, he was still alive, just knocked out, good, I didn't want the extra attention from the police that I would have gotten with a murder under my belt, even if it was in defence of others. _Wait... Am I seriously more concerned with keeping off the radar of the police than I am about whether or not I might have accidentally killed someone?! Now, granted, he was apparently scum who had no problem with hurting little kids, but he was still a person, sort of... the thought of killing him should be horrifying me, not filling me with a sense of..._ accomplishment.

Well... that was certainly a disturbing realization, I've killed people before, it's the only answer for how I'm so calm about taking other people's lives... Huh, that's not something one usually wants to learn about himself. I decided that it didn't really bother me, I'm not a sociopath or anything, I knew that if innocent people got hurt due to my actions I'd feel remorse, but for someone like that thug not giving him the punishment he deserved was more a matter of convenience.

Ignoring Pyrrha, the kids and the groaning and whimpering thugs I fished a Scroll out of Mr. Broken Bottle's pocket.

"Hey, that's mine you piece of shit!" The owner of the Scroll snarled through the pain.

"Relax, I'm not stealing it, I'm just going to call the police on you and your friends, and you really should watch your language in front of little kids." Casually I reached over and grabbed his slashed heel, hard, he screamed even louder until I let go and asked Pyrrha what the number for the police station was. My red haired friend looked a little green as she'd watched me inflict pain on my victim on a whim, but she gave me the number and I punched it in and chose to keep it sound only.

" _911, what's your emergency?"_ The operator was a level voiced female.

"Yeah, I'd like to report an interrupted assault, four guys were threatening a group of kids with a broken bottle, but they were stopped by a guy in a blue coat with blue hair, he immobilized the guys threatening the kids, then left."

The operator was starting to sound suspicious. " _And where did this happen sir?"_

I cocked my eyebrow at Pyrrha, who gave me the address to the building next to us. I supplied the location to the operator, then I placed the Scroll on a trash can lid, without hanging up, and walked away, Pyrrha caught up with me seconds later.

"Why did you just leave those kids there?" The redhead inquired.

I shrugged, keeping my eyes forward as I responded. "I couldn't do anything for them, and they'd never let you, a human, give them charity. They're street kids, they can survive on their own, in fact they've probably already left, I doubt they would want to wait for the police to show up."

Pyrrha looked troubled but didn't argue the point further. She likely thought I was remembering something that had caused me to make that judgement, and indeed there was a tingle in the back of my mind, suggesting that the street kids' situations were familiar to me. We walked in silence the rest of the way to the doughnut place, it was a small cafe style establishment with outside tables under yellow umbrella-style canopies. Inside a large glass fronted display case showed off the shop's wares and doubled as the home for the cash register, a sandy blond teen with acne scars and a navy blue apron over his red t-shirt and jeans stood behind the register. When the sandy haired boy spotted Pyrrha his face immediately lit up. "Is that...? Pyrrha Nikos! It's an honor to have you here miss Nikos!" Several heads poked out from the kitchen, abruptly they all swarmed Pyrrha, whose smile turned strained around the edges.

I blinked in shock as my friend was inundated with excited fans, apparently she was a much bigger deal than she'd let on. The red haired spartan shot me a panicky pleading look over the heads of the five shop workers. Letting out an amused chuckle I stepped in.

"Alright, I think it would be best if you gave Miss Nikos some space to breathe." I stepped between Pyrrha and her admirers and tried to ease the situation. However the counter guy and several of the kitchen people took one look at the lion ears on top of my head and their expressions turned sour.

"What's the beast doing in here? The sign on the door clearly says 'no pets allowed'." I suddenly wanted very much to shove _Duty_ 's blade through the counter boy's throat. I restrained myself because, asshole or no, the idiot was a relative innocent, and also because Pyrrha would be quite upset if I committed murder in front of her, mostly that if I was being honest with myself, though she herself was looking at the blond with the same expression she'd worn during our first meeting, her perfect features were set in a hard glare, her emerald eyes let off metaphorical waves of sheer cold, _damn that girl could be scary when she wanted to be._

I could see Pyrrha's incredible self control fray as muscles bunched in her jaw. My only friend my age turned on the ball of her left foot, snagged me by my right bicep and practically dragged me out of the doughnut shop, my lion ears could pick up a string of under her breath curse words, I had no idea she even _knew_ that many bad words. I alternated between shocked at Pyrrha's hissed stream of invective, impressed that she had managed to keep herself from saying any of it to their faces, and somewhat touched that she was angry on my behalf.

"Well that plan's pretty much shot, so, what next Miss Nikos? 'Cause I gotta say, I'm still pretty famished." I attempted to lighten the mood with a calm, joking tone, it didn't really do the trick, but it did jolt Pyrrha out of her focused state.

"Huh? Wha-Oh! Sorry! I wasn't paying attention."

"I could tell." I snarked, I seem to have something of a natural instinct towards snark, I'd stopped myself from making at least six snarky comment over the course of today, and it wasn't even noon yet... Cool, I'm developing a sense of humor, (or redeveloping as the case may be, I have no idea what my sense of humor was like before yesterday, or even if I'd ever really _had_ one) _yay me_...

* * *

(Author's Note: sorry for the delay, I get distracted easily, oh the joys of ADHD (there are none) and sorry for uploading the wrong chapter initially anyway, as always please read review and enjoy!)


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Where do I sign up?

As we sat at a table in front of an outdoor cafe that _didn't_ turn us away because of my lion ears, I brought up something that was bothering me, and had been since the fight with the thugs.

"Pyrrha, is there some way I could fight Grimm without a Hunter's license?"

The champion's vivid green eyes blinked at me, nonplussed. "Of course, we can just go to Forever Fall Forest, Grimm hunting isn't legally limited to certified Hunters, Hunter trainees and anyone with combat training can hunt smaller Grimm if they want, though for anything more dangerous than an Ursa non certified people are strongly advised to run away, and none of the Kingdoms have any legal liability when it comes to injuries and deaths sustained during a non certified hunt, they basically see it as a case of 'if you're dumb enough to get in over your head on your own time it's your problem'."

"Fair enough." I shrugged, it made sense to me, if you purposefully put yourself in danger then it was your fault if it got you hurt.

"So what brought this about?"

"I want to know something: whether I was trained to fight monsters, or just people."

Silence hung in the air around us as we both thought about that question.

"You know..." Pyrrha's calm attitude was unmarred by the dark turn my thoughts had taken us in. "Even if it turns out that you _were_ only trained to fight people it doesn't mean that you were a criminal, necessarily, you could have been in law enforcement."

"At seventeen? With this?" I held up my mechanical arm. "I don't think so, no officer of the law is paid enough to afford something this advanced, _I have a limited sense of touch in this hand!_ A prosthesis this state-of-the-art would be worth millions. I'm a teenaged Faunus, I highly doubt I've ever seen one million Lien in one place in my life, legitimately at least. That plus the fact that the serial number was removed leads me to believe that it was stolen, but I can't be sure, I could have been kidnapped, used as an experiment for some new type of prosthetic, then had my memory wiped and the serial number filed off to prevent me from me from identifying them, but that sounds like the plot to a bad action movie and I sincerely doubt that it's what actually happened. The simplest solution is usually right, not always, but quite often, and given what we know of me it's highly likely that I was a criminal of some kind, honestly even if it turns out that I was trained to fight Grimm that doesn't really mean much, it's sorta a survival necessity to know how to deal with monsters, but it would make my next plans easier if I was."

Pyrrha's eyebrows furrowed. "Next plans?"

I smiled over at my friend. "I'm going to take the test to get into Beacon."

"That sounds like a grand idea! If you make it in we'd be classmates." Pyrrha's smile lit up her face at the idea. "Well, then I guess we have our next destination: retrieving the rest of my combat gear so that we can do this together."

I wasn't about to object, I'd seen how good Pyrrha was in a fight, and would have to be stupid, drunk, and concussed not to take the offered backup, and I was none of those things, though the possibility of brain damage was still up in the air, I'm an amnesiac after all. "Alright then, let's do this."

I don't know what I was expecting Pyrrha's home to look like, but a luxury condo wasn't it, the redhead was so humble and down to earth that it was easy to forget that she was a famous athlete, and apparently rich. Pyrrha seemed to notice my sudden discomfort as we stepped through her doorway.

"Azure? Are you ok?" Pyrrha asked, a concerned frown wrinkling her perfect features.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine, I just got something, not a memory really, just the thought that the last time I was in a place this fancy I wasn't on good terms with the residents." Or rather that I had _hated_ the residents, the sudden surge of remembered anger had caught me off guard, but it hadn't changed my actual mood any, it was just a memory, shapeless and vague. I idly wondered who they'd been and what they'd done that just being in a place that vaguely reminded me of them would inspire a blunted memory of hatred, then I dismissed the thought, whoever those people had been they weren't here and thus didn't matter.

Once Pyrrha was clad in her combat clothes (the clothes she'd been wearing when we first met) we flagged down a taxi, which took us to the Forever Fall forest, Pyrrha paid the fare, as I, naturally, didn't have any money, I resolved to pay her back when I got the opportunity, that resolution was expanded when, during the cab ride, Pyrrha handed me a pair of ammo clips that her father had apparently kept for his own use, since he was currently in Mistral Pyrrha was sure he wouldn't miss them, plus he had around a dozen.

The forest of Forever Fall was beautiful, everywhere was awash in red leaves that nearly glowed in the sunlight, but apart from a brief moment where we both stood and appreciated the view neither Pyrrha or I wasted time with sightseeing. The pair of us ran into the forest, weapons out and ready for trouble.

I hadn't expected for there to be any Grimm on the outskirts of the forest, and I wasn't disappointed, we slowed our run to a walk once we'd decided that we'd gotten far enough into the forest. My lion ears were standing straight up, swivelling on my head to try and catch as many ambient sounds as I could, my eyes swept the forest around us, the trees were widely spaced, allowing for plenty of sunlight so visibility wasn't an issue. It was twenty minutes before the first Grimm showed itself, a lone Beowulf sniffing the air in our direction.

"Hey, Pyrrha, you can just stand still, he'll never find you." I couldn't resist the whispered swipe at my friend, who just rolled her eyes with a small, good natured smile gracing her face, shifted _Milo_ into it's rifle form and shot the monster between it's burning red eyes, the rifle shot punched through the bony mask and snapped the wolf monster's head back, before it collapsed like a puppet with it's strings cut and began to dissolve into black smoke. Howls floated out of the forest around us, Pyrrha took a stance behind me, I heard _Milo_ shift into one of it's melee forms, Pyrrha was ready for whatever came, I had to be the same. Narrowing my eyes in focus I levelled _Death_ and _Duty_ at the black shapes bounding through the trees towards us. The first Beowulf burst from the trees, only for me to shoot it in the throat with _Duty_ , six of its packmates barrelled straight towards me only to be met by _Death_ and _Duty's_ bullets, the fifth and sixth Beowulves received painful but not debilitating wounds as both had managed to move just enough that my shots hadn't killed them and continued their charge, I extended the blades on both guns and rushed in to meet the charge, reckless, I know, but if I'd stayed where I was Pyrrha could have been caught by a claw from behind. I ducked under a claw swipe and rammed _Death's_ blade into the offending monster's stomach, I didn't remove the blade as I sidestepped the creature, which resulted in my momentum tearing the blade free of it's victim, gutting the demon as I slashed upwards with _Duty's_ blade removing the sixth Beowulf's arm at the elbow, spinning in place I landed a kick that snapped the monster's opposite back leg, two blades flashed and the dissolving corpse of the Beowulf fell to the forest floor in three pieces.

Retracting the blades on my guns I swept the forest around us with my Faunus eyesight, then, upon seeing no immediate threats I turned to face Pyrrha, who stood in the center of a circle of at least a dozen dissolving corpses, she was smiling over at me like nothing had happened, I, for my part rolled my eyes, that had barely been a warm up, the purpose of this endeavor was to come at least close to my limits when fighting Grimm, we needed to find more monsters... Well... That was a sentence I'd likely never thought before today.

It took an hour before we found another group of monsters, this time a trio of Ursai, which got cut to pieces without a single shot fired, the bear demons were too slow and clumsy to lay a claw on me, Pyrrha hung back and let me take them on myself. We were there to test my abilities after all, and I wasn't even breathing hard after the third Ursa collapsed and began to smoke, _Death_ and _Duty's_ blades impaled through the top of it's skull. I sighed in exasperation as I retracted the blades back into their guns and sheathed the twin pistols, we were here to test my abilities, and apparently they were greater than I'd originally suspected, or I'd overestimated the strength of the Grimm, if I was going to really test myself I would need to fight either a larger group than we'd encountered thus far, or just a bigger Grimm.

"This isn't working, I'm not getting any kind of challenge from the monsters we've seen so far." I griped.

Pyrrha voiced her own opinion. "On the contrary you've shown you have the ability to thrive at Beacon."

"Thanks Pyrrha, but I'm still not ready to pack it in yet, I want to see how I do against something big." Especially since I suspected she was just being nice, it was the biggest flaw in her character I'd seen thus far: she was way too nice for her own good.

Pyrrha shrugged. "Alright, but the entrance tests end in two days, you should get yours done as fast as possible."

Wait... _Seriously!_ "Alright then, that speeds up my timetable considerably, we'll just have to cut this short, we can go hunting again another time, though it _would have been nice to know that earlier!_ "

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha quickly apologized, seriously, that girl needs to stand up for herself more.

I let out a sigh. "It's fine Pyrrha." There was no point in getting angry when Pyrrha looked so guilty.

It took us about half an hour to get back to Vale, Pyrrha was looking embarrassed the whole way, but beyond my initial irritation I wasn't really bothered by what had happened. It took another fifteen minutes in a cab whose driver kept giving me dirty looks, I was also pretty sure he'd taken a few unnecessary turns to draw out the ride and enable him to charge us more, _jerk_.

When Pyrrha and I stepped out of the car I flipped the driver off with my mechanical arm, taking a measure of satisfaction when the racist jerk started at the sight of the metal bird I was flipping him, then drove off looking scared. I let out a dark chuckle at that, seriously, the hell is wrong with me? The guy was undeniably a massive tool, but that didn't make it okay to scare him like that, satisfying for sure, but not right.

Beacon's entrance exams were held in a huge oval building, a sign outside proclaimed it to be Lighthouse Stadium, home of the Vale Regional Tournament. Just past the doorway, a skinny man with disheveled green hair, glasses, and a wardrobe that looked as if he'd thrown it on at a dead run sat behind a table with a clipboard and a sign that announced his station as a registry for anyone wanting to take the Beacon Entrance exam, there were at least six empty paper coffee cups and a strange green thermos, which my Semblance showed me was actually the idle form of a weapon, some kind of fire club thing, by the look of it... What? Don't look at me like that, it was a weird weapon, that was the best description I could come up with.

Pyrrha hung back as I approached the green haired man, after all, she already was bound for Beacon, she'd never be allowed to stick around in the testing area. My lion ears twitched with my nerves and my fingers, both mechanical and biological, tapped against my thighs, I had a nervous tic, I'd have to work on getting rid of that.

"Hello young man! My name is Dr. Bartholomew Oobleck, yes, I assume you are here to take the entrance exam for Beacon Academy." Dr. Oobleck spoke in a rapid fire manner that had me hesitating a second in order to untangle his words.

"Uh, yes sir." I wasn't really sure what to make of the plainly eccentric man in front of me, on one hand he looked like your stereotypical nutty professor with a serious caffeine addiction, but he also had a mechashifted weapon on his desk disguised as a travel thermos, and every combat instinct in me was screaming at me not to get on his bad side.

Dr. Oobleck's thin, sharp-featured face broke into a bright grin. "Excellant! Sign here and we'll get this ball rolling!" A flat, tablet style computer and a stylus were shoved into my hands, without looking down I signed on instinct, I mean why not? I haven't lost any of my other muscle memories, right? Unfortunately my signature is nigh on illegible, though I did manage to make out a "T" at the beginning of my last name before passing it back over to Dr. Oobleck, _great_ , now I have a last initial, isn't that just dandy? (Just in case you have trouble reading sarcasm, that was it.) Though honestly I was in fact quite thrilled that I'd finally gotten a clue to my identity, just underwhelmed, this was just one letter after all.

"Very well, young man! Do you have a copy of your last physical examination?" I shook my head mutely, I mean what was I supposed to say? " _No, sorry, I don't know if I've ever gotten a legal medical check up, I'm an amnesiac, see, and on top of that I'm pretty sure my arm is stolen."_? Yeah, _no_.

Dr. Oobleck frowned slightly, before launching back into his head-dizzying speech. "A medical station has been set up down the hallway and to your left, you can get one done there, an up-to-date physical exam is a requirement for Beacon's Entrance exams, it shouldn't take more than ten minutes or so. Good luck." With that I headed over to the indicated medical station.

The station was a repurposed room of indeterminate original purpose, just a small bland cube now filled with medical equipment, a pink haired woman in a white lab coat occupied the center of the room, the name tag on the coat read 'Dr. C. Williams'. Dr. Williams turned as I entered her room and gave me a professionally friendly smile.

"Welcome! I'm Dr. Cherry Williams, and you are?"

"I'm Azure, Dr. Oobleck sent me to get a physical for my entrance exams."

The doctor nodded. "Fine, do you have any medical conditions which might affect the test to notify me of before we start? Other than the prosthetic arm of course."

"I've got amnesia, does that count?"

The doctor shot me a sharp look. "Yes, it would, how much of your memory has been lost?"

"As far as I can tell almost all of it, my last name, my exact age, my birthplace, how I ended up with a robotic arm, any details about myself, though my instinctive responses, reflexes, muscle memory, and learned skills all seem intact, I have no way of knowing exactly how much was lost." I shrugged. Dr. Williams looked at me for a few seconds, then she pulled another flat handheld computer, from which she extended a pair of wires, which she attached to my forehead with electrodes, my aura flared up around me unbidden, until Dr. Williams detached the electrodes and pressed a few keys on the screen of the computer before commencing with the rest of the physical, checking my eyes, ears (both sets, I had to stop from twitching when she checked my lion ears, it tickled like hell), and reflexes, she also checked the area where my mechanical arm had been attached to the rest of my body, even going so far as to detach the prosthetic to examine the artificial joint that had apparently been implanted to replace my original shoulder, as well as weigh the arm itself, after which I was weighed and measured and some blood was drawn and examined.

"So what we lookin' at Doc? How long do I have to live?" I quipped, a sarcastic half smile tugging at the corner of my mouth.

Dr. Williams rolled her eyes. "Well at least you retained a sense of humor, you've got signs of previous head trauma, including lesions on the temporal cortex of your brain that..." My eyes glazed over as the topic of discussion went totally above my head, my physician noticed and sighed in resignation. "You have a couple of bruises on the part of your brain that stores experiences and detailed memories, you've also got a tiny bump just above the brainstem, where your aura's self-healing is controlled, otherwise your amnesia would have lasted all of two hours or so. As is, you're looking at approximately two months of slowly regaining individual memories, until the bump is gone and your aura can just repair the rest of the damage on it's own. I'll include a note into your written test. Other than that you seem like a relatively healthy young man, your body mass index is low, just barely within normal weight, and you're slightly malnourished, but your eyes and ears seem healthy. You keep your lion ears clean and free of parasites, you've got a decent musculature and your reflexes are excellent, even with your robotic limb, in fact you seem to have taken to your prosthetic quite well, it's only a few months old, but that's enough time for your body to reject it if it were going to, so I doubt you need to worry about that. All in all, you've got a clean bill of health, you'll need to eat more dark leafy greens and red meat, you're a little iron deficient, and of course there's the whole memory loss thing, but that will resolve itself soon enough." As Dr. Williams had been giving me a run-down of my medical condition she had been filling out a form, which she handed over to me once it was finished. "Here you go, hand this over to Bart, er.. Dr. Oobleck that is, you'll get a written test, then after that's over there's the combat exam, and an interview."

I let out a long breath that I hadn't realized I'd been holding, sure, the written test sounded like institutionalized hell, I had the feeling I hadn't liked that kind of thing even when I had memories to guide me through them, and I wasn't looking forward to the interview either, I mean what would I say? I suspected it would involve a lot of uses of the phrase 'I don't know' and that gets old, _fast_ , but now that the testing was about to begin I felt all nerves slide away into a kind of comforting stillness, either I'll pass the test or not, but worrying would get me nowhere, therefore it had no place in my mind at this moment, I'd let it out later, when it wouldn't get in my way, but until then the mission came first, even when that mission was just a test to get into Beacon. I stopped in the middle of the small hallway and blinked, _mission? Who the hell WAS I before I lost my memory?_

Once I'd handed over my medical exam to Dr. Oobleck the disheveled coffee addict appeared to speed-read the whole document. "I see... Complete Retrograde Amnesia is quite rare my boy. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll perform well." With that, Dr. Oobleck handed over a small packet, my written test, since I was the only person taking the test today I could basically sit anywhere, as long as I was within sight of Dr. Oobleck. I sat on a bench and went to work, surprisingly I was able to answer most of the questions on the test, not all of them, but I was at least confident that I hadn't completely bombed the test... Probably... Let's face it, I have no way of knowing how well I did until I'm graded, I don't even know how I knew any of those answers, they just sort of... came to me, it was a little creepy to be honest, but I'm not complaining.

My interview went about as well as I'd expected, neither I nor my interviewer (an elderly fat guy who introduced himself as Professor Peter Port, I didn't like him much, he seemed like someone who liked to hear himself speak) left the interview as anything other than annoyed. Finally it was time for the combat test, the only part of the exam I was looking forward to, certainly the only one I had a chance of acing.

I stepped out onto the arena floor where the combat test was to take place, a short guy with silver hair and a rat tail stood in the ring, waiting for me. A stern looking blonde woman wearing what looked like a cross between business casual and strict librarian topped by a tattered black and purple cape, stood scowling at me from the other side of the combat ring as I sidled up to the pair, she looked like that was her default expression, so I didn't take any offense.

"Good afternoon Azure, I am Professor Glynda Goodwitch, combat instructor and deputy Headmistress of Beacon Academy, this is Shiroh Lee, a second year student, he will be your opponent for this portion of the Entrance exam." The blonde indicated the silver haired rat Faunus, who gave me a small nod in greeting, which I returned. Taking my spot on the other end of the ring from Shiroh I drew my pistols and held them down at my sides, Shiroh settled into a stable stance and raised his fists, the metal bracers over his forearms extended over his knuckles as he did so.

"Good luck." I started as I heard Shiroh's low, tranquil voice speak from across the ring.

"Uh, thanks?" I answer, though the comment had totally taken me by surprise.

"You'll need it. Survive. Show them." Shiroh nodded at me again, though this time it was with a small smirk on his face.

"The match will end when one combatant's aura reaches the red zone. Begin!" I barely heard Goodwitch declare the start of the match, the moment the word was out of her mouth Shiroh launched himself at me. I raised _Death_ and squeezed off a shot, Shiroh just blocked the round off of his right bracer, _on purpose_ , it hadn't been luck, he'd moved his arm almost before I'd even fired. I backpedalled immediately, my opponent was faster. I ducked a punch and got a knee to the face for my trouble, snapping my head back and sending me reeling, then Shiroh swept my left foot out from under me with a low kick, I barely managed to keep upright, but my stumble gave Shiroh the opening to close with me and unleash a barrage of punches to my torso, then a roundhouse kick to my face.

The kick sent me flying, but I was able to recover and roll onto my feet, extending the blades on my guns. I prepared to face my rat tailed opponent's next charge, only to find him with a smirk on his face, holding three knives in each hand, where he'd gotten them I had no idea, but Shiroh hurled the blades at me with such force that when I dove out of the way they stuck in the concrete wall behind me, _ten feet behind me_. _Holy shit!_

I knew enough to tell that this fight was hopeless for me, Shiroh Lee was leagues beyond my skill level, but his words at the start of the match resonated in my head. At first I'd assumed it was just empty encouragement, now I realized that he had been telling me what to do, I wouldn't win this fight, that much was a given, what I needed to do instead was show Professor Goodwitch and whoever else was judging this match what I could do. Shiroh waited for me to close with him, there was a satisfied smile on his face. I slashed at Shiroh's face with _Death_ and struck for his midsection with _Duty_ , the rat tailed martial artist's arms snapped into action, in the same motion he took three short steps. In less than a second both my blades were batted aside and a lightning fast kick slammed into my gut, sending me _flying_. With a huge crash I slammed into the dividing wall between the stands and the arena. My breath had been blasted away by the kick, so nothing came out when I hit the wall, but I took in a deep breath and struggled to my feet. Shiroh hadn't left his spot, I was right, he wasn't trying to win, he could have done that at any moment, he was just trying to force me to my current peak, well, if that was what he wanted, then that was what I'd show him.

I wiped blood from the corner of my mouth, and spat out a glob of bloody spit while I took stock of my resources, thirty or so bullets, a pair of blades, and fifty five percent aura, give or take five in either direction. I fixed Shiroh with a level stare, retracted the blades on my guns and began glowing blue. All the aches and injuries I'd accumulated during the fight vanished as my aura activated in full. Shiroh pulled a small black bar of metal, from which a knife blade emerged, the knife was then sent whipping toward me. I batted the weapon aside with my metal arm, raised both guns at once and began to fire. Shiroh cartwheeled out of the way of the small barrage, then broke into a run straight for me, I wasn't about to let him get close to me, so I took off running to my left, firing as I did so, Shiroh dodged them _all_ , I'm not talking "get out of the way" dodging, he ducked, leapt, rolled and dove _through_ the barrage, finishing in a roll that terminated with a leg sweep I had to leap backwards to avoid, as I did Shiroh sprang to his feet. I fired three shots at point blank from _Duty_ , Shiroh leaned back and turned his torso, allowing the bullets to pass by harmlessly _inches_ from his face, _how the hell did he do THAT?!_ I extended my blades and stabbed for Shiroh's chest with _Death_ , an open palm snapped across and shoved _Death's_ blade away from it's intended target, but that was fine, in fact it was the best outcome for what I wanted. I sent a snap kick at Shiroh's knee, the martial artist deflected the kick off his thigh, but then I fired _Duty_ into his opposite thigh, silver-white aura flashed as the shot hit right where I'd aimed it. Shiroh's smirk turned into a genuine smile right before he grabbed my right wrist, spun around me and dragged my arm back at a painful angle. Three punches into my flesh and blood arm rendered the limb numb and worthless, _Duty_ clattered to the arena floor as I tried to turn and bring _Death_ to bear.

The next thing I knew I was sprawled on the ground with a buzzer signalling the end of the fight, my head was ringing from the kick that had dropped me like a ragdoll, it had impacted just below my right ear and blasted me into brief unconsciousness. A hand reached down, Shiroh was looking down at me and offering his hand to help me up, I took it.

"Good job. Worst opponent for you. Did alright despite that. They'll pass you, I bet." Shiroh said quietly.

"H-how...?" I HAD to know how he'd dodged those shots, but my head was still ringing, and I was having trouble keeping my thoughts straight.

"Semblance. Reflex. Makes everything seem like slow motion. Can react faster than others. It's useful, but annoying, can't turn it off."

Holy shit, and I'd thought magnetism for a Semblance was a game breaking power, constant bullet time reactions bordered on insane, how did he LIVE like that?! No wonder he was a little... _odd_.

"Didn't expect that last move. Clever. Get stronger and pay a visit to Team LighTNinG's Dorm. Be happy to spar any time. Expecting big things of you." The older student clapped me on the shoulder and walked off.

Professor Goodwitch walked into the arena, she still looked about two seconds from giving me detention, but somehow her features seemed to have softened, while remaining stern. "Not bad, very few people could have gotten around such a vast discrepancy in speed and reaction time, even for just the single moment you managed, that shows potential, though I do suggest you work on getting faster, and think through your approach next time, against an opponent that is superior to you in every way your only hope is to out think them. Your grades will be delivered to..." Mid speech Professor Goodwitch stopped and looked over my shoulder. "Professor Ozpin? What are you doing here?"

I whirled and was about to raise my remaining gun to bear out sheer instinctual panic when a hand grabbed my metal forearm, stopping the motion cold. I tried to pull my left arm out of the grip of the slender, silver haired man in a green suit who had approached from behind me without a single sound, but no matter how hard I pulled the man's grip didn't waver. In his other hand he held a mug full of steaming coffee and leaned against a clock themed cane. Intelligent brown eyes looked me over from behind small framed sunglasses and his expression was pleasant, as if he hadn't just stopped a teenager from attacking him, or as if he didn't still have said teenager's metal arm in a vicegrip. In fact I could have sworn that there were a couple new dents in the metal, before he simply dropped my prosthetic arm and took a step back. I stumbled back a step, my entire body shook from shock, for just a second there I was sure that I had been about to die, and I was absolutely sure that I couldn't have done a damn thing to save myself, this Ozpin guy was the single most powerful person I'd ever met, I couldn't remember ninety percent of my life, but I was absolutely sure of that.

"Well, that could have been messy." Professor Ozpin's voice was amiable, even amused as he leaned on his cane and passed the coffee mug to his free hand before taking a contemplative sip. Almost out of habit I found my eyes flicking down to the cane, which Ozpin immediately and smoothly moved behind his back, shielding it from view, one dark eyebrow arched, I felt my face grow warm from embarrassment, before the implications of that move hit me like a bus: Ozpin knew what my Semblance is, and his immediate reaction had been to counteract it, perfectly, _ergo, he knew who I was!_

Ozpin must have seen my face change at the realization, because the pleasant expression he wore melted away into a vaguely regretful one. "I'm sorry, I can't answer any of your questions, you need to remember on your own, you need the context of your memories to make sense of your past actions, it would do you no good to have them just thrust on you before you're ready."

 _W-what?_ Logically I could understand his reasoning, I'd already deduced that I was some sort of criminal, and if what I had done was worse than simple theft, I wasn't really sure I wanted to know. But that was the logical part of my brain, the emotional part wanted me to scream at Ozpin for keeping my identity from me, my past, _my self._ Then that cold, logical voice in the back of my mind pointed out that yelling would do very little good, there was no way to _make_ Professor Ozpin to tell me, the very idea was laughable. So I forcibly reined in my instinctual fury and managed to keep my voice even, empty of the swirling mass of emotion burning in my gut. "Please... Please tell me my name at least, and _why_ you're here, because I know it wasn't just to enjoy Vale's scenery."

Professor Ozpin sighed regretfully. "Your name is Azure Tobias, as for why I am here, I wish to offer you a place at my school."

"I accept, now if you don't mind I'm going to go somewhere you aren't, good afternoon Professor." I walked out, detouring only to retrieve _Duty_ , and brushing past a confused Pyrrha by the entrance without even a glance. If I stayed any longer I would have needed to maim something.

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(Author's Note: I never intended Azure to have a chance at beating Shiroh, but I'll admit it ended up more of a curbstomp than I'd originally intended, hope you enjoyed it anyway, Shiroh and Team LTNG are going to be recurring side characters during Azure's time at Beacon, so I hope I did a good job with Shiroh, as always read, review and most of all enjoy!)


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four: Why am I laughing?

"Azure, wait! Where are you going?" That was Pyrrha, I noted, she was trying to keep up while I stalked down the street, not really paying attention to where I was going. Screw that tiny logical voice in my head! Screw Ozpin and his refusal to tell me who I am! Ok, I _may_ have been throwing a tantrum, maybe, but _damn it_ it was so incredibly frustrating to have the person with the answers to all my questions flat out refuse to give me those answers!

I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and took several deep breaths as I waited for Pyrrha to catch up, this only had marginal success as a calming tactic, I still felt like inflicting grievous bodily harm to anything that would stand still long enough.

Cold seeped into my voice as I answered Pyrrha's question, though I supposed cold was better than screaming at her, which was what I wanted to do, that wouldn't have been fair to Pyrrha though. "I'm going to go back to Forever Fall and I'm going to kill a whole lot of Grimm until I'm able to speak without having to suppress the urge to scream, and I'm too tired to take my frustrations out on anything that moves."

Pyrrha was looking extremely worried but I couldn't bring myself to have more than a twinge of remorse for that. "Did-did you fail? Is that why you're angry?"

I let out a humorless laugh. "No, I passed, Professor Ozpin himself even offered me a place at Beacon."

My red haired friend's expression shifted into confusion. "But... that's a good thing, right? Exactly what you wanted."

"Except that it turns out that our esteemed Headmaster knows exactly who I am, and refused to tell me anything more than my last name, it's Tobias, by the way."

"Oh..." Pyrrha's eyes widened, and her expression fell, immediately understanding the reason for my rage. We hailed a cab, thankfully the driver didn't act like our previous cabbie had, I might not have been able to restrain myself otherwise. As it was we got out at the entrance to the forest, Pyrrha paid the cabbie and I drew my guns. I was practically twitching in anticipation. _Hurry up Pyrrha, hurryuphurryuphurryup_ "hurry up." I hadn't even noticed vocalizing that until Pyrrha shot me a look of annoyance. Even through the haze of my increasingly unrepressed rage I felt a bit of satisfaction spark deep inside, Pyrrha _could_ lose her temper, there was some hope for her yet. I barely managed to wait long enough for Pyrrha to pay the cabbie before extending _Death_ and _Duty_ 's blades and breaking into a dead run for the heart of the forest.

Now, you may or may not know this but the creatures of Grimm are drawn to negative emotions. It's even been suggested that they might feed on them, though nobody has confirmed that yet, the fact that negativity draws them in like scavengers to a fresh corpse is undeniable however. Thus, in my current state of raging emotions my mere presence was like a dozen dinner bells going off at once. _Perfect._

A bellow announced the arrival of the first Grimm on the scene: A massive Ursa crashed out of the undergrowth, it's left paw was lifted and about to swipe my head off. I ducked and dashed to the monster's right, slashing the side of bear demon's throat and opening the jugular vein as I went. The Grimm bear crashed to the ground, blood spraying from it's severed jugular, I didn't have time to watch my enemy disintegrate, a pack of Beowulves was bounding through the forest, straight for me. I retracted the blades on both guns and began taking controlled, rapid-fire shots at the advancing monsters. A rifle's crack split the air behind me, I spared a brief glance over my shoulder to see Pyrrha laying on a tree branch with _Milo_ in it's rifle form nestled against her shoulder. I stopped firing, I only had so many bullets you know, around seventeen left in total. Blades extended I met the pack's charge with a yell of pure hatred for the foul creatures that had forced both of this planet's intelligent species to the brink more than once.

I found myself moving in a completely different manner to my previous fights, my body seemed fluid as I flowed around a demon wolf's attempt to bite my throat out. I removed it's left leg at the knee without so much as a hitch in my stride, my other blade flicked out as the creature fell, slipping between ribs and bisecting the creature's heart. My hands moved independently from the rest of my body, the blades on my pistols cut cleanly through joints, spines, necks and skulls, I fell into the comfortable focus of life or death combat, and all around me gore and severed limbs sailed through the air. I came out of my near-trance when I slipped in a puddle of Beowulf blood that hadn't yet evaporated, immediately I broke into a roll that took me out of the line of attack for an especially massive beast, the Alpha of the pack. Pyrrha's rifle rounds struck the Alpha around the head and neck, though the bony plates and spikes growing in those areas prevented any of the shots from being lethal it still proved enough of a distraction for me to spring upright.

"Hey, Ugly, why don't you try to take a piece out of someone closer to your weight class?" I knew the Beowulf Alpha couldn't understand what I was saying, but it was a pack creature, and one thing it knew better than anything else was a challenge. Locking my eyes onto the burning red, hate-filled eyes of the Grimm I took a step forward and bared my teeth in a savage grin, this, _this_ is what I needed, a fight where the slightest mistake would mean death. My aura was still low from my combat test, my muscles were beginning to voice their opinion of the abuse I'd heaped on them, I didn't care, all of that served as an excellent distraction from thinking about Ozpin, my past, or my future. Right then I was just Azure Tobias, warrior, and that's how I wanted it. The Alpha and I had been circling each other for half a minute, glaring like two wolves about to fight for control of the pack... Yeah, fuck that noise, I'm not some dumbass canine, getting into fair fights, I'm a lion, a cat, and cats use whatever advantage we can get. The moment the Alpha's back was to Pyrrha's tree I called out one word. "Pyrrha!" _CRACK!_ The rifle round punched through the vulnerable back of the Beowulf Alpha's skull and exploded out the other side, passing over my head less than a second later.

Since the enemy had been wiped out I closed my eyes, trusting Pyrrha to warn me if any new Grimm showed up, and let the roiling mass of emotion flood my mind, I _needed_ to get back my calm center, and the only way to do that was to stop shoving all my emotions into a corner. It started as a shaking of my shoulders, then a nearly mad giggle, which rapidly transformed into a full fledged laugh, and... were those... _tears?_ I reached up and touched the liquid drops spilling from the corners of my eyes, yup, definitely tears. I had pushed so much of the anger, fear, and confusion I felt at all times into this hunt that I just couldn't stop until I'd let everything out. Was it wrong that I felt a cathartic release from horribly butchering soulless monsters en mass? I didn't think so, but what did I know? Pyrrha approached me cautiously, I didn't blame her, after all I had just started to laugh like a crazy person... actually I was _still_ laughing like a crazy person, I should probably stop, shouldn't I? Taking several deep breaths I forced the laughter to subside.

"Sorry about that Pyrrha, I just needed to let it out, I felt like I was going to explode with all the emotions I'd been repressing since I woke up, so it was either laugh or scream, and I didn't think you'd appreciate me screaming myself raw, besides, laughter's healthier."

"Y-Yeah, screaming would definitely have been worse..." Pyrrha still looked a little freaked out, however what I did a second later startled a squeak out of her, huh, that was really cute, and totally unexpected, and did I mention really _really_ cute?... A-wuh? Oh, right, I was doing something... I hugged Pyrrha Nikos, yeah I know what you're thinking, it wasn't like that! Or at least not mostly, I just threw my arms around her for a quick squeeze, long enough to mutter "thank you" into her ear before releasing her, her face had turned as red as her hair and she wasn't looking at me, oh shit, did I mess up or something?

I felt my own face burn as words tumbled out. "Ah... er, sorry, got carried away, but seriously, thanks for sticking by me like you have, I would have gotten into serious trouble if you hadn't, so thanks, for being my friend I guess." Holy crap I'm bad at this, Pyrrha was chewing on her lower lip, and still not looking at me, I messed up didn't I? Wait, she's speaking.

"N-No p-problem, what are friends for?" My famous friend stuttered as she raised her eyes from the ground and met mine with a small, uncertain smile playing across her face... Why is my best friend so _cute?_ This would be considerably less uncomfortable if I wasn't reasonably certain that I could easily end up falling for her with a little effort. Well... today has certainly been an emotional rollercoaster (stupid teenage boy hormones) but I'm starting to think that I could do with some relaxation time, one emotional breakdown was enough for me, thanks.

My lion ears twitched and I felt my body act on pure reflex. I shot forward and tackled Pyrrha out of the way, cursing my foolishness, there we were in a Grimm infested forest, chatting like schoolgirls (though one of us _is_ a schoolgirl, so that might not have been a fair comparison, I doubted Pyrrha is in any way a gossip), _stupid, stupid, STUPID!_ The massive jet black snake head that had found itself with a mouthful of dirt, rather than a mouthful of tasty Human, hissed in outrage. That hiss was soon joined by a second, as where a tail would be on a natural snake, the creature's scales faded from black to white, a second, pure white snake head controlled the white half of the King Taijitu independently from the black half.

The twin heads of a King Taijitu wove around each other hissing and flicking their tongues out to taste the air, waiting. I made the first move, levelling both pistols and firing a shot at each head, gauging their reactions, neither snake head flinched as the rounds struck them, that was not good. My mind raced, like natural snakes each King Taijitu head was capable of lightning quick bursts of speed when they struck at their prey, but otherwise they weren't very fast. They were, however, unfortunately, hideously strong and covered in bullet proof scales, not to mention venomous. If you managed to survive being impaled on it's sword-sized fangs or crushed by their enormous jaws you got poisoned on top of it! Whoopie! Thank God for aura I suppose.

Speaking of aura, I'd actually managed to recover some while fighting the Beowulf pack, it was now at approximately thirty-eight percent, not great but a damn sight better than the ten percent (more or less) that I'd finished my combat test with.

"Pyrrha, distract it!"

"Roger!" The red headed tournament champion shifted _Milo_ into it's spear mode and charged in. If we hadn't been fighting for our lives I'd have taken more than a second to watch Pyrrha's assault, it really was a thing of beauty, not a move wasted. Mid charge, Pyrrha leaped and rolled over the striking black head, throwing _Akouo_ , her shield, at the white head to discourage it's own strike, before using her magnetism to call the shield back onto her bracer and jabbing backward with her spear to keep the black head's attention on her.

I meanwhile climbed a tree, yeah, I know that's nowhere near as awesome, but bear with me here. I reached my target branch and stood up on it, mentally berating myself for coming up with such a crazy plan, even as I went about fulfilling it. Blue lines of aura flowed down my left arm like a glowing blue circuit board, gathering around my metal fist in a swirl of indigo and azure light against silvery metal. Still questioning my own sanity, I took off running along the branch, launching myself into the air above the black head. The demonic snake never saw me until my aura reinforced robotic fist slammed into the top of its head, driven by gravity, well-crafted servo motors and all the force I could pour into the punch. The hit sent the black head crashing to the ground, the impact even shook the white head, I punched again and again until I broke through two layers of bone and a layer of scales and flesh. Moving with purposeful speed I tore a hole in the black snake's skull with my mechanical arm, then I drew and emptied _Duty_ into the opening, seven shots, straight into the brain. When the White head hesitated from feeling it's other half's concussion and subsequent painful death, Pyrrha struck hard. A loud _BANG_ echoed through the forest as Pyrrha threw _Milo_ with a shot fired from the butt of the javelin, the Dust enhanced recoil sent the javelin rocketing through the weak scales on the snake's throat, the spear stuck in it's target, but didn't pierce far enough so _Akouo_ was sent spinning through the air, guided by a steady magnetic push, to impact with the _Milo_ driving the javelin deeper into the King Taijitu's throat, killing it.

For a minute we stood there, breathing hard as the two headed snake Grimm disintegrated, then I accidently broke the silence by inhaling some of the Grimm smoke rising around me. This immediately had me coughing it out, that stuff was _disgusting_! Laughing quietly, Pyrrha went to retrieve her weapons, i'd have said something about the laugh, but I was too busy attempting to cough up a lung or two, _ugh, Grimm smoke is NASTY!_

Once I could breath normally we made our way back to Vale, chatting easily with each other, talking and laughing, and generally enjoying each other's company, I needed that. Half an hour later we stepped through the doors of _A Hunter's Paradise_ still laughing. Near the back of the gym a small blonde girl stood, running through what looked like katas. When I'd first seen her I'd thought she might have been a younger boy, her hair was in a short ponytail, her figure was boyish, not to mention concealed some by the grey hoodie she wore, and her face had slightly androgynous, though delicate-looking features: A rounded chin, small mouth and wide, pale blue eyes.

On second glance it became obvious (at least to me) that she was a girl, it wasn't anything overt, just the way she held herself, the shape of her eyes and cheekbones, her long eyelashes and rosebud mouth, all pointed towards female. Her eyes didn't seem to move with her body, just staring blankly ahead. She was blind.

It took Pyrrha an extra second to notice the blind girl. "Oh! I wonder who that boy is, I've never seen him around before." The red haired champion asked, I nearly facepalmed, I'd forgotten that, as a Human Pyrrha simply didn't have my eyesight, and had made the same mistake I'd almost made.

Keeping my voice low I corrected my friend. "Pyrrha, that's a girl."

"Yes, I am, I can also hear you, so there's no point whispering." The blind blond didn't break from her flowing stances as she spoke, her voice was softer than Pyrrha's but also slightly lower pitched. Pyrrha and I turned a little pink around the ears. The strange girl smiled in our general direction as she came to the end of her sequence, let out a deep breath and turned to face the pair of us. "Hi! I'm Luna Argent." Luna had been striding towards us, as much as a five foot five blind girl _could_ stride, I found it odd that, though she was unquestionably blind her steps showed no hesitation whatsoever.

I shook her offered hand and the instant our hands came into contact Luna angled her head up so that she was "looking" in the general area of my face, I guessed she had some kind of touch based extra sense for her Semblance.

"Azure Tobias, the girl next to me is Pyrrha."

"Hello!" Pyrrha greeted Luna brightly, the blonde turned her head and smiled on Pyrrha's general direction. Pyrrha, it seemed had just realized that Luna was blind as her eyes widened and she glanced over at me, I shrugged. Rusty came out of his office/apartment in the back, saw Pyrrha and I talking with Luna and smiled.

"Hi Rusty, I was just getting to meet Azure and Pyrrha here, they seem nice." Luna greeted Rusty without turning, she'd probably heard him walking in, Rusty was a big guy, and his footsteps weren't particularly quiet.

"Yeah, they're good kids, you'll like them I think. Anyway, it's time for practice now, go get your weapons."

"Okay! It was nice meeting you two, if you stick around maybe we can hang out after practice, yeah?" Luna smiled up at both of us, though I was pretty sure she only knew my height, not Pyrrha's. Regardless I nodded, mostly out of habit, since she couldn't see it, and replied.

"Yeah, that sounds great." Pyrrha voiced her agreement a second later with a small "uh-huh." Luna's smile brightened further. As she bounced off, I noticed that her feet were bare, which, if I was right about the touch-based sensory Semblance explained how she could weave through a room full of gym equipment without even feeling her way around with her hands. Idly, I wondered what the range on her extra sense was, probably not large, as she hadn't known how tall I was until we'd shaken hands. Luna's destination was a canvas tote bag laid on a bench against the back wall, fishing inside for a second Luna withdrew a pair of odd looking objects, after running her fingertips over both objects she pulled them on: they were a pair of fingerless gloves with what seemed like some kind of Dust reservoir on the backs of her hands, connected to something on the palms by tubes, it was too far away for my Semblance to pick them up, so I just took a seat outside the small practice ring and waited.

When Luna joined Rusty in the ring she'd stripped out of the hoodie, leaving her in a black tank top and knee length jeans. Rusty had more than a foot on his sparring partner in height, the boar tusked man was _massive_ , intellectually I'd already known that, however, seeing him in the ring with someone whose head topped off about even with his chest drove the point home further. Luna's face was set in concentration, her body settled into a tightly controlled stance, her left leg slightly forward, right leg bent just a little, her body turned so that she was facing Rusty from the side, and her hands held open in front of her. Rusty held no weapons, but he was a 6'10'' giant, he didn't need weapons.

Rusty made the first move, a straight right which Luna reacted to in the split second between when the attack flew past her outstretched left hand and when it would have connected, moving with a grace that defied her lack of sight, Luna ducked under the huge fist, landing a palm strike on her opponent's elbow as she passed by. The impact preceded a flash of cyan light and ice formed around Rusty's elbow. Lightning quick Luna drove three palm strikes into Rusty's torso, the stomach, solar plexus and chest specifically, each hit was punctuated by a burst of elemental energy, electrical sparks flew with the first hit, a patch of ice formed where the second hit landed and the final attack knocked the huge gym owner back with a burst of fire. Rusty caught his footing quickly and casually shattered the ice encasing his elbow. Luna wasn't content to just stand react, she crossed the distance between herself and Rusty in a second.

The fight was fast paced, but I could tell Rusty was holding back, he was at least as skilled as a practicing Huntsman, so naturally he was holding back, he could have taken all three of us at once, even if Pyrrha and I had been at full power. Holding back was the only way Rusty could make this fight last long enough for Luna to get anything out of it. Unfortunately, the training session got put on hold when a small fireball from one of Luna's gloves was deflected to one side and set my sleeve on fire. I stripped out of my jacket, only to find my shirt smoldering so I pulled that off as well and stomped the fires out. In doing so I turned my back on both Pyrrha and Rusty (Luna too, but since she couldn't see, Pyrrha and Rusty were the important ones in this instance), two sharp intakes of breath had me turn back to see Rusty looking poleaxed, edging toward thunderous, Pyrrha dumbfounded, and poor Luna completely confused.

"What?" No, seriously, why are they looking at me like that?

Pyrrha's hesitant voice tried to answer me. "W-well... Um, you-you have... tattoos, on your back."

Dr. Williams hadn't needed me to remove anything more than my jacket before her device had been able to get readings from me until she'd removed my arm, which had only required my left side be pulled up, and I hadn't thought to check for them earlier, a spark shot through me, even as a weight dropped into my gut at their reactions, this could be a major clue, but judging by the reactions it wasn't good news. "What are they? Anything that might give a clue about my past?"

Pyrrha swallowed nervously, definitely not a good sign. "You know how you thought you might have been a criminal before losing your memory? W-Well, I think we can say with confidence that your theory has been confirmed."

That didn't sound good, but I'd deal with that later, I needed to know what the tattoos were. Still shirtless I walked over to a full length mirror against a wall and took a look. In the center of my back was a lion with one paw on a human skull, and on my right shoulder blade, done in blood red and chalk white, was a snarling wolf head, superimposed over three ragged claw marks. Somehow I recognised the symbol immediately: The mark of the White Fang. _I was a terrorist._

* * *

(Author's Note: Here's number four, enjoy!)


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